The present invention relates to a method of producing fine powder of rare earth magnet.
As the conventional method of a producing a rare earth magnet fine powder composed of an alloy of an iron-triads-group metal and a rare earth metal, there have been known a method of making an ingot of mother alloy and then crushing the same, or another method of making a ribbon of mother alloy by instant quenching of molten alloy and then crushing the same. Further, a chemical reaction method of producing alloy powder has been studied by Saita et al. of Tohoku University (Special Working Group in method of making amorphous metalization and application thereof, The ninth regular meeting text, 28); however, the production of rare earth magnet powder has not been reported.
For making and crushing an ingot or for making a ribbon by instant quenching of molten alloy and crushing the same so as to produce fine powder of a rare earth magnet, there has been needed high energy consumption, complicated processes and expensive equipments such as a big furnace, liquid instant quenching apparatus and crushing machine, thereby causing the problem of high production cost.